Archive for February, 2008
Behind the Boomer & Web 2.0 Curve
It’s interesting to watch how many major public relations respond to trends … usually becoming engaged after a trend is already well-established. Couple of examples – My old friend, Greg Dobbs, and I launched a creative writing online magazine for baby boomers, called BoomerCafé, in the summer of 1999 in response to all of our [...]
Recession in PR: Perception or Reality?
My column today in the Daily Dog online newsletter, the leading PR industry site: Here’s a reality I learned long ago as a correspondent at CBS News: Perception can be the highest form of reality. The media has always managed to create stories out of perceptions that sometimes carry enough substance to become reality. We [...]
New Media World: All About Transparency
General Motors is trying to patch up whatever reputation it had as an environmentally aware corporation. The company is holding a series of online chats with environmental critics after GM’s blog was slammed with comments that were critical of the company’s environmental efforts. The environmental activist group Rainforest Action Network said some things that GM [...]
Strategic … Real or Imagined
The word, “strategic,” is so over-used by many organizations that its true meaning is at risk of becoming trivialized. The board of a trade organization mandates a “strategic” communications plan, without even considering what is involved. A not-for-profit launches into a “strategic planning” process that consumes many hours by many people, without clearly defining what [...]
Have You Seen A “Rolodex” Lately?
Want to be seen as a savvy communicator? Be careful about what you write and suggest. As an online publisher, I received an email pitch recently from a PR person who suggested I might want to add their contact information to my “Rolodex.” Rolodex?! I haven’t seen one of those things in about 20 years! [...]
Untangling Online Strategies and Web 2.0
All of the PR people, including major agencies, who are now struggling to figure out online strategies might want to hear Jeanette Gibson. She is the visionary Director of New Media at Cisco Systems in San Jose, CA. I spoke with her recently to get her thoughts about how organizations can use the Web for [...]
America: Awash in Gun Violence
Six more senseless killings on a college campus, and politicians sadly intone that, “we must do everything in our power to stop this … “blah, blah, blah.” But, of course, they don’t actually intend to do anything. Politicians have had it in their power to do something about gun violence in America for decades that [...]
Blackberry or iPhone?
[Update: on February 11, 2008, service failed for approximately 12-million Blackberry users worldwide, blamed on a server failure at the company's headquarters in Canada. It was the second major service failure in the last year.] Living in the Washington, D.C., area, it seems as if everyone has a Blackberry. People are addicted to them and [...]
Local TV for the Birds
Local television news is … well, sometimes for the birds. This is one of the funniest incidents I’ve ever seen happen to a local reporter.
